My head feels like someone's injected pure lead into it. Heavy, slow and sore. A few pained groans escaped my lips as I tried to raise my hand to rub my temple. Huh, that's weird, my arms are pinned by something. And I can't feel my fingers. Groggily lifting my head up, I look down to examine what's holding me down. I almost wish I hadn't. Restraints held taught over my body, but while that sent of alarm bells by itself, nothing was as bad as what I saw lay beneath.

Red. Too much red. Not hands. Hooves. My brain skids to a halt, recovering memories from yesterday. The tear, the ponies, the dog pile, for some reason a clown, and the feeling of nothingness. It sends shivers down my spine. A quick search over the room made it obvious that it wasn't the bare cement room I had woke up in, the walls lined with book shelves filled to the brim, a closer look revealing the titles on the spines written in something like Latin. A smooth, dark oak desk sat on the other side of the room, framed papers with signatures hanging proudly off the walls behind. I could recognise diplomas anywhere.

"Well, look who's awake!" My head snapped to the now open wooden door I somehow managed to miss, another horse-thing standing under its frame, this time brown, his calm demeanour almost as impressive as mine.

"WHAT THE FUCK'S GOING ON!" My ~~desperate~~ reasonable screams made him flinch slightly, before he moved towards me, a small smile on his face as the door closed roughly behind him. I tried to put as much distance between us as possible with my limbs restrained, and if he did notice, he didn't show it.

"Your reaction is completely normal for someone in your situation, and I understand how scared you are," his voice was soft and slow, the kind that someone would use to comfort a small child, "And I am aware of your first *Ahem* experience. But I can give you whatever answers you need if you answer some of my questions. That sound good?" I hated his patronising tone, but answers are the only thing I need. I slowly nodded my head to show my resigned cooperation. I don’t like this situation, but there’s unfortunately little I can do to fix it. Best to roll with the punches, as they say.

Giving him time to continue his explanations, I followed him with my eyes as he started a slow walk around the room, until he stopped in front of the desk, a serious look on his face as he looked directly into my eyes. "Please understand, the restraints are for your safety, you've been... non responsive for a long time. You're muscles are uncoordinated and slightly under developed, and after your last experience we couldn't risk you falling down." I think he was trying to reassure me about my restraints, and as much as I believe him, it doesn't calm me in the slightest. Mostly because I still HAVE HOOVES. "Now, can you tell me the last thing you remember before waking up here please. Take your time."

I quirked an eyebrow at him in confusion. What did I remember? Does it look like I'm stupid? "The last thing that happened- *ahem*" It only just occurred to me how saw my throat was from even such a mild amount of yelling, as if it barely got a workout compared to my usual tirades of screaming and the non stop shit shows that are my mostly one sided conversations. "Is this because my body is new?" My unfocused remark seemed to catch the horse's attention, as I noticed one of his eyebrows raise in intrigue. Shit, steer the conversation back onto topic. "The last thing that happened was that god damned dogpile of assholes-"

"Now I understand your experience, but those ponies were trying to help. Surely such harsh names are-"

"Yeah, no. The last thing I remember is those arseholes dogpiling on this arsehole, before the lady..." what did he call them? "Pony shot me up." Yeah, that sounds about right.

The hor-pony picked up some notes on the desk, reading through them as he off handedly nodded. “Yes, well, I’m aware of your less than pleasurable experience upon awakening, but I was referring to before that. What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up in your room earlier?”

The last thing I remembered before waking up earlier? Even easier. “I was in my apartment, when a bright light appeared in the middle of the room, like a tear in reality. Then it sucked me up. Next thing I know I woke up here as a small red horse.”

My recount made the pony pause, one of his eyebrows raising while his eyes shifted back to me. “Excuse me, but you say that you weren’t a pony before?” There was intrigue in his voice, and I just realised how I fucked up.

‘Oh well, two for two. Might as well go all in.’ Despite how little sense that phrase makes in this situation, I decided to risk it. Better by choice than the inevitable accident. “Nope, I was born, bred and raised full blooded human, at least as far as I know...” at the mention of humans, the pony’s face morphed into... confusion? I’m going confusion for 700. “Humans are, like, hairless apes. Ya’know, bipedal and shit, with hands and opposable thumbs, all that good stuff. Omnivorous, pretentious, and extremely stupid.”

The pony’s brow looked like it was ready to pop off, it being raised far higher upon his head than what almost seemed possible. He slowly put down his notes back onto the table as he turned his full attention back to me. “Tell me, what exactly do remember about yourself?” The way he intently stared at me as he said that sent a shiver down my spine, but questions must be answered, regardless of my unease.

“Another easy one, my name is Dominic Stevens, 22 years old, male and highly attractive. I live by myself and have a well paying, if very dead-end job. Try throwing me a curveball next time.” Maybe I’m having too much fun with this...

“Well... Dominic, there’s a topic I would like to discuss with you,” the brown pony walked over to the desk, sitting down and pulling a pair of glasses... somehow. Setting the glasses soon his face, he went back to giving me his full, if not quite unnerving attention. It’s kinda funny, with the diplomas behind him and with that look he has, it’s almost as if he’s a...

“Wait.”

My whisper of an epiphany went unnoticed by the doctor as he continued his ‘conversation’. “You see, the pony brain is quite amazing. It has an astounding ability to take a fractured understanding and fill in the holes itself!” Oh fuck me.

“Oh fuck me.”

Ignoring me, his tirade continues unabated. “Listen to me Trap, there is nothing wrong with you, you just have some trouble remembering.” Oh no no no no.

“Trap? Doc my name is-“

“Trap! You’re name is Open Trap, and I understand your confusion and fear, but we’ll help you understand reality.”

“Okay one, rude. And two, fuck you, I ain’t crazy!”

“No, of course your not crazy,” his tone was reassuring, but my knowledge of what comes next isn’t. “You’re just a little confused. But we can help you!” And there it is.

Okay I can fix this. “Okay doc, I think there’s been a misunderstanding, so how about we just play nice and you let me go, yeah?”

“Unfortunately we can’t let you out of our care yet.” Fuck why doesn’t that ever work? “If you were to go out as you were now, you’d be a danger to ponies and yourself!” I can feel my temper rising. This isn’t going to end well. “We’ll take good care of you, so don’t worry abou-“

“NO! I’m not meant to be here! I’m not even a pony damnit! I’m a human!” I don’t care if I’m having a tantrum right now, I just can’t deal with what’s going on. I began thrashing at my restraints, desperate to get any leeway no matter how little. I couldn’t find any, but the doctor pony was already calling for help regardless. Not even 30 seconds later and I had one of those big ponies dragging me out of the room, still thrashing and screaming my noble declarations of who I am inside. The last thing I could see of the room being the doc’s closing door gaining distance, a smirking pony behind it, and only one thing on my mind. ‘That’s one hell of a curve ball.’

Wait, smirking?

“Fuck me. Fuck me and fuck my life.”

“Please Trap, there’s no need for that language.”

“Fuck you too.” The nurse who was caring for me gasped, like, in actual pain. So now I feel like an asshole. Add that to the current shit list, but right now I was too salty to care. I was returned to the room I woke up in after my forceful eviction from the docs office, but barely only got enough time to myself to calm down slightly before the nurse came to take me around the facility. Apparently the nurse pony I saw upon waking in this world was my assigned carer or something, because I’m apparently going to be spending a lot of time with her. I also happened to notice something else about the ponies, but they’re hair... mane colour is, well, weird. I didn’t notice it before with the doc because of how normal a brown coat with black mane looked to me, but the nurse has, and I shit you not, a soft blue mane along with her white coat. And judging from the other ponies we passed, that’s still not even the weirdest colour schemes. How do ponies even become pink?

That brings me back to my current situation. Apparently, this body isn’t very developed (muscularly you pervs) which means walking is hard, not even considering the fact that I’ve never walked with four legs before. So here I am, being pushed around in a wheelchair feeling like an idiot for not knowing how to walk. Don’t even get me started on how wrong it feels to be sitting in a chair as a pony. Anyway, after a tour of the facility, which I was very interested in for reasons unrelated to escape, it was apparently time for dinner, so it was a quick walk through the park towards the food area, which meant some quality time with the nurse.

“I bet you’ll feel less grumpy after your dinner huh?” Speaking of whom.

“I’m not a damn child.” I don’t think I can take any more of being looked down on like this. Even I have my dignity, even if it’s practically non existent.

“Well maybe you should stop acting like a child then.”

“WeLl MaYbE YoU ShOuLd StOp AcTiNg LiKe a ChiLd,” I cleverly retorted.

I almost fell out of the wheelchair as it abruptly came to a halt. “Are you... an actual child.”

I didn’t think I could get embarrassed in this situation, but somehow I felt my cheeks heat up regardless. “S-shut up and push me damnit.”

The chair started moving again as the nurse gave a nervous and rushed apology. I’m guessing she’s not actually supposed to talk to patients like that, but it’ll be good to have someone who still treats me with respect. As we approached the cafeteria, we passed a pony laughing to themselves loudly, for no apparent reason. It’s then I got a good look at something else that was bothering me, this time an image of three different types of nuts: almond, peanuts and metal.

“Hey... so what’s the deal with the butt pics?” The nurse looked at me like I was an idiot, so I probably wasn’t very good at explaining. “You know the pictures on peo-ponies asses,” I clarified, pointing to my blaringly vacant ass.

“I know what you mean! Just stop using words like that!” She let out quickly. Taking a second to recompose herself, she started on her explanation. “Well.. when a pony gets to a certain age, they find what they’re special talent is, and the latent harmony magic in them manifests they’re talents and sometimes even they’re destiny into those pictures we know as cutie marks.”

That gave me pause, mulling over her words. I didn’t even notice as we entered the cafeteria. “So when you're a child, a permanent picture appears on you that marks what your good at and what you should do with your life?”

“That’s... well...”

“And some ponies marks condemn them to things like insanity based off their childhood?,” I continued, gesturing to a pony we passed with a screw affiliated cutie mark, “I don’t know, that’s just kinda... sad.”

I expected her to say something defending their tradition, or just flat denial. She didn’t make a sound. We continued in an awkward silence until we reached a table, and she parked me close enough to comfortably eat. She quickly disappeared before coming back with a tray on her back, the contents obscured by my angle.

“Okay, now your food might not look very appetising, but your jaw muscles are still properly recuperating,” an annoying truth as my mouth felt strained despite how comparatively little I’ve talked while here, “and this has just the right nutritions you need to heal fast,” She quickly added, as she moved to place the tray in front of me.

Her description gave me some skepticism, but how bad could it be? “Trust me, if I can eat my sisters cooking, I can eat any...thing...”

The thing on that tray was too familiar. It was mush. Grey mush. The same grey mush that was in my apartment and almost killed me.

“Fuck my life.”

Author's Note

Hey so, I’ll try to get another chapter out as soon as possible, just be wary over the next week, it being my only week this year of holiday so far, I might not get it done then. I’m still getting back into the groove so forgive how bad these chapters are and please leave some advice if you have anything you feel is worth giving. I feel especially clunky with conversations and back and forth dialogue, so please if you have any, some constructive criticism would be great. Have a merry Christmas/Boxing Day depending where you’re from.